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Ann Arbor Palestine Film Festival call for submissions

Premiering in March 2009, the Ann Arbor Palestine Film Festival will showcase films about Palestine and by Palestinian directors. Educating through the screen arts, the film festival amplifies the voice of the Palestinian people as a nation and a diaspora. This film festival is an independent and non-sectarian organization.

We are a new film festival that will debut in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in March 2009. Our purpose is to show Palestinian communities in Palestine, Israel and in the diaspora in a much more humane light, as compared to the gross stereotypes that surround Palestinians as a result of misinformation by mainstream media, and from vilification in decades of Hollywood films. The focus of the film festival is to educate audiences about Palestinians through films that focus specifically on depicting the culture and history of Palestinians, for visual images have a very significant impact upon how communities are portrayed and treated in larger society.

The Ann Arbor Palestine Film Festival will reach out to local communities in the surrounding metro-Detroit area. We anticipate receiving audiences from the local university, artist, filmmaking, activist, and Arab-American communities. The film festival aims to bring such audiences together to engage in a new conversation about Palestine through the use of visual media.

Submissions

The Ann Arbor Palestine Film Festival is now accepting submissions. We accept short films or feature films of any genre, either documentary or fictional, if they fit into one of these four categories:

1. Films by Palestinians about Palestine/Palestinians, including the Palestinian diaspora
2. Films by non-Palestinians about Palestine/Palestinians
3. Films by Palestinians about other topics/issues
4. Films about other struggles that can be connected to Palestine

Early deadline of $15: postmark deadline 31 October 2008
Final deadline of $25: postmark deadline 1 December 2008
Fees are waived on submissions from outside the United States. Notifications of accepted films will be given by 12 January 2009.